Florida Medical Marijuana Heads To A Vote, Carl Hiaasen Has Field Day

Floridians will have a chance to vote on legalizing medical marijuana, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Jan. 27., setting up a major battle in the populous southern state, and some searing commentary from legendary author Carl Hiaasen.

A Quinnipiac University Polling Institute survey in late 2013 showed 82 percent of the public supported medical marijuana, which is great because unlike California, Colorado, or Washington, a constitutional amendment in Florida requires 60 percent voter approval for adoption. Naturally, elected Florida leaders are deeply opposed, including Florida’s entire Republican Party all the way up to Gov. Rick Scott.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and the state’s Republican leadership even sued to block a vote on medical marijuana, but the Florida Supreme Court narrowly ruled 4-3 to allow the vote to go forward. Reutersreports Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor of Florida who is running for Governor as a Democrat versus Scott in November celebrated the Supreme Court decision, saying “I’m going to vote for it and I think it’s the right thing to do.”

Hiaasen lit up critics of expanding medical marijuana access noting that “this, after all, is the state that made pill mills a roadside tourist attraction. … Pill mills, which cater to addicts and street dealers, kill lots people. Pot dispensaries don’t.”

Hiaasen also skewers the wisdom of the state’s, ahem, highest judges, like Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricky Polston who said doctors would be recommending pot to toddlers.

“This bizarre hypothetical assumes that the pediatrician is an incompetent psychopath, and that the parents of the toddler are knuckle-dragging morons. That’s a recurring theme of the political opposition to the medical cannabis amendment — people are just too darn naive to know what’s really happening.

“Yet on this subject most voters aren’t naive, and they’ve got a fair idea what’s coming.”

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